The Storyteller: Hooked on hot dogs

Austin's Hot Dogs keeps it simple, and the customers keep returning

For about 20-years, Austin's Hot Dogs at the Watson Village Shopping Center in Anderson has served up a hot dog on a steamed bun with chili, and sides of onions, mustard, and even cole slaw. What makes a good hot dog? "It's all about the chili," traveling salesman Rex Dotson of Tennessee said.

Rex Dotson of Chattanooga, Tenn., stops in Austin's Hot Dogs in Anderson as part of his business route. "I've tried them all, and these are the best," Dotson said.

Bryan Cox, left, and Tony Wilbanks, both of Anderson, take a lunch break for a few hot dogs with cole slaw at Austin's Hot Dogs in Anderson.

Austin's Hot Dogs owner Joey Hawkins smiles as a customer arrives at the sole store at the Watson Village Shopping Center in Anderson.

ANDERSON - Nine square tables, enough for maybe 40 customers. Four people behind the counter, cooking and opening up the register with that universal "cha-ching." And one star attraction on the menu: hot dogs.

No burgers. No fries. No chicken fingers.

Just hotdogs and all the toppings you can imagine — chili, cheese, coleslaw, onions, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and pickles. Every table has three items on it: salt and pepper shakers and a bottle of Texas Pete.

Welcome to Austin's Hot Dogs, a restaurant tucked in the middle of other shops and the WRIX radio station at the Watson Village Shopping Center on Anderson's south side.

For 20 years nearly this place has stood here, with its neon "open" sign flashing to customers from across the parking lot every day but Sunday — always from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.

On this day, a man, dressed in a suit, tries to take a bite of his chili and slaw topped meal without dropping a morsel. At another table, Nathan Callahan, 5, with legs shaking like a motor, nibbles away at a frozen treat in the shape of the cartoon character SpongeBob.

"Sometimes, you can hardly get in the door here," says the boy's great-grandmother, Mildred Watt of Homeland Park. "We just have fun. And you never get a bad hot dog. They're always good."

She and her husband, Marion, and their family come here almost every day to this place. In fact, when Marion's sister, Linda Minish, was in the hospital, she received a card from the four workers behind the counter.

"It was on a napkin," Linda recalled, laughing. "It said, ‘Money is tight, times are hard, so consider this your get well card.' They are just great."

The catch: Linda isn't related to any of the workers. She's just a regular customer here.

Now that's customer service from a restaurant without a corporate stamp and with an owner who is here behind the counter every day that the doors are open.

This is Joey Hawkins' place — a place he acquired on May 1, 1989, a place where he works at the same thing his daddy did, and a place where those who love hot dogs come to gather.

In the 1950s, before Joey was born, his dad operated a concession stand at the Fox Drive-in off the Belton-Honea Path Highway. Then in the '60s and '70s, they operated Hawkins' Gulf and Grill at S.C. 81 and Interstate 85.

"I started working for dad in the seventh grade," Hawkins said.

When he graduated from McDuffie High School, Joey Hawkins thought he'd try his hand at some other skills for a while. He learned bricklaying and some other trades.

But he never left Anderson or the idea that one day he would open his own business.

When he learned Austin's Hot Dogs, was up for sale, he bought it. He inherited two crockpots and a microwave and has built the business from there. But the "kitchen" in this place is still small.

There's enough room for the sink, a steamer, a microwave, two refrigerators and a register. This is where the staff — Joey, Margaret Campbell (who's been here 13 years), Carol Cook and Ashley Powell — make the coleslaw and chili from scratch and chop their onions up fresh.

In one corner of the dining room, there is a small television that stays on the news or "Andy Griffith." A few newspapers are stacked on top of a freezer in one corner of the dining room, for customers to catch up on local happenings. And in another corner is an ice cream cooler.

It's a comfortable place, kind of like eating at home.

On another day, a group of firefighters — all in T-shirts that read "Homeland Park Heat Seekers" — have pulled two tables together so they have room for everybody to sit. Others catch up with friends, talking across the table.

Rex Dotson, a clothing salesman from Cleveland, Tenn., even manages to find his way here. He has been coming here for about 25 years now, he says.

"I never fail to come in and get at least one or two hot dogs. They've just got the best hot dogs."

So what makes them so great?

Well, the steamed buns, that homemade chili and slaw, if you ask me. Others may say the same. Or they may say it's that cheddar cheese (none of that stuff that comes wrapped individually in plastic, either.)

And this is it, this one place with its nine tables.

Joey says some people ask him if he might open another place or move to Clemson Boulevard. He says no. He likes it here, too.

"I can see that I am putting out a good-quality product," Hawkins said. "I like what I've got here."

So do I. Stop by Austin's in the next day or two, you might catch me there, trying not to drip chili and slaw on my clothes at one of those nine tables.